Oh Happy Day!

Wow, Singing with Larnell Harris was FUN!!

A choir was put together to sing back up for him at Community Church Saturday night. I thought it sounded fun to be in a choir, so I signed up, a few minutes into the first rehearsal I was wondering "what I was thinking??!!!" It's probably been 20 years since I sang with a choir.

Now that we sing primarily praise music, and with words only on the screen, as opposed to following a musical score, I realized pretty quickly that I have become an extremely lazy singer. Half notes are two beats???....oh yes, it started coming back to me, but very slowly!!

Then I got a cold about 3 weeks ago, and almost emailed Kyle to tell him I had to quit the choir, but instead I went and squeaked thru it with deaf ears and a scratchy throat. And that cold never did go away, so even on the afternoon of the concert I debated about staying home...I'm so glad I didn't give in to my stuffy head and constant tickle in my throat! At one point on stage I almost died of coughing and eye watering, but I said a little prayer, "God can I just please finish this concert?" and he answered with a yes, the tickle subsided.

When Larnell showed up it became pretty apparent that he is "all business" I imagine after one does so many concerts over many years, it becomes mundane, and more of a "job" as opposed to an exciting moment like it was for us. I felt like he was being less than gracious to our poor VOLUNTEER sound guy, and he wasn't overly friendly with us in the choir rehearsal either.

We have a few friends who are "front man" in bands, and I notice that there is a particular quality about a front man....a little bit cocky, they don't like it when the other guitar player's amp is turned up louder than their mic, and in general, they seem a little demanding. Outside of their band life, they are normal folks, but once they get on stage...it's all about them. I think it's part of what makes them successful leaders, that and a desire to have people like them.

Once the lights went down and Larnell got on stage, a different side of him seemed to emerge, and an engaging and sincere Larnell wooed the crowd with his velvety voice. From the smiles of pure joy on the faces of the audience members, I think he connects very well. At one point during the concert when the piano player was jamming out Larnell looked at the choir and seemed to roll his eyes with a sly smile as if to say yeah yeah yeah to Simeon and his show boating. I thought it was cute.

We had rehearsed some songs, but it was really fun when Simeon would look at our choir and mouth that we should sing back up, on songs like "His Name is King Jesus" and "Oh Happy Day". At many different times Larnell interacted with the crowd, he sang, "if you love him say I" to which the crowd bellowed "I"!

A big part of the fun for me was watching the crowd. They did a lot of standing up and clapping. There were some kids in the front row dancing around, and there were some more reserved folks who don't clap, but the looks on everyone's face was priceless, they looked as if they were having a blast!

At the end of the concert there were lots of cheers and hoots and hollers for Larnell. At that point he led us in acepella "O Come Let Us Adore Him" and as we sang the beloved tune Larnell and Simeon snuck out the side door. As if to say, thanks for clapping but let's give the glory to whom it belongs. I found it very moving, and that moment I realized that Larnell may very well be doing a "job" but his heart is in the right place.

On Sunday morning many people were still glowing from the concert, so it wasn't just I who felt the spirit moving in the room. In my Sunday school class I made the comment that during the concert I felt as if I were to have died right then and there, I wouldn't have cared. And my dear friend Carol Zandstra put it so much better, she said "it give you just a little glimpse of what heaven will be like with angels singing and dancing before the Lord." Amen